'The Premier League title is gone for Manchester United and I think the Champions League positions are gone as well,' said Liverpool icon Graeme Souness to Sky Sports recently.

Previewing United's upcoming bout with Olympiacos in the Round of 16 in Europe, Souness - a three-time Champions League winner with Liverpool in the late 1970s and early 1980s - opines that the premier club competition is the only tournament United can finish on a high with, but are unlikely to progress further than the quarter-final as there are a plethora of greater teams ready to knock them out, from Paris Saint-German to Chelsea.

'The Champions League is their last opportunity to take something from their season. It has been a very, very traumatic period for Manchester United,' Souness said. 'You are talking about a group of players that are used to winning trophies and who are used to being feted as the best - and yet they are already being written off for almost everything.

'It's been a very difficult year for them and I think the only chance of them getting back into the Champions League next year is to win this season's competition. I don't see that happening, but this tournament is their chance for them to take something away from what has been a traumatic season for them.

It's a difficult ask for them to go beyond the quarter-finals. The four teams that won last week were the teams that won their groups and there will be a big jump when you get into the last eight.'

Listing the teams he envisages to be too tough an examination for United to pass, Souness said: 'Beyond this, I think Paris Saint-Germain would be too much for them, as would Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and Chelsea at this moment in time.'